Improvement in lamp-trimmers



n. B. ALTEN'D EBFER & J.

C. WRIGHT.

Lamp-Trimmers? Patented Aug. 11, 1874..

No. 153,921. I

IHVENTBR WITNESSES:

ATWRNEYS.

THE GRAPHIC CO. FHOTOLITH.39& 4-K PARK PLACE, NY

UNITED STATES- PATENT OFFICE.

DANIEL B. ALTENDERFER AND JOSEPH G. WRIGHT, OF MONOOAOY FUR- NAOE,PENNSYLVANIA.

IMPROVEMENT IN LAM P-TRIMMERS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 153,921, dated August11, 1874 application filed July 3, 1874.

To all whom it may concern: 7

Be it known that we, DANIEL B. ALTEN- .DERFER and J OSEPH G. WRIGHT, ofMonocacy Furnace,in the county of Berks and State of Pennsylvania, haveinvented a new and Improved Lamp-Trimmer, of which the following is aspecification:

Our invention consists of an extension wicktube adapted to betemporarily applied to the permanent tube of a lamp to extend it abovethe cone, said tube having its edges split for a short distance downfrom the top. so that the sides can be pressed together, through whichtube the wick is raised so as to project above the top about as much asit is required to be cut oil, to be firmly compressed between the sidesto hold it for trimming by another shorter tube, with converging insidewalls, said tube being so adjusted that when put on the'top Of theextension-tube and pressed down till its upper end falls a little belowthe top of the other it will spring the sides firmly onto the wick, andthus hold it securely for trimming, which is done with suitablelamp-trimming scissors, using the top of the extension-tube as a guide,said top being perfectly straight or slightly convex, as may be desired.Lamp wicks can be readily cut straight and true with the ordinaryscissors, provided they are held sutficiently tight in a suitable clamp,which we have thus provided in a very simple way, so that all usinglamps may, at a very slight expense, always have the means of quicklyand successfully performing the work.

-'Figure 1 is a sectional elevation-of a burner with our improvedtrimmer applied. Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the extension-tube. .Fig. 3'is a side elevation of the clamping-tube; and Fig. 4 is ahorizontal section of the extension-tube, taken on the line x as of Fig.2.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts.

A represents the tube for temporarily extending the wick-tube above thecone of the lamp for holding the wick to be trimmed, said tube being ofsuitable size to fit snugly at the lower end on the lamp wick-tube B,soas to hold on it by friction, and in the upper portion being split atthe edges 0 from the top downward half an inch or more to allow thesides to be pressed firmly against the wick. D is the tube with theinner walls converging to a point a little above the top, and otherwisefitted snugly to the upper portion. of the tube A, so that by pressingit down thereon it will spring the sides of A so as to nip the wicktight at the point where it projects above them, and they will serve fora guide to the trimming scissors, with which any unskilled person willhardly fail of accurately cutting oif the wick, so that it will burntrue.

The extension-tube may have a flange at the bottom at right angles tothe length to allow of fastening a chain, also to aid in keeping itperpendicular. The outside tube or compressor may be made of thin sheetmetal with a jacket folded back or down from the top at an acute anglewith the body for connecting with extension-tube by the aforesaid chain,so that the two can be kept together. This flange or jacket will notextend downward more than half the length. of the tube. It will alsoafiord a convenient means of taking hold byfthe fingers to pull thecompresser oit from the extension-tube.

Having thus described our invention, we claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent The tube D, tapering toward the top, combinedwith a flat tube, A, having the slits G O, as and for the purposedescribed.

DANIEL B. ALTENDERFER. JOSEPH G. WRIGHT.

Witnesses:

EDGAR S. 000K, ALFRED WATERS.

